Medical, dental, pharmaceutical, veterinary or mortuary instruments and devices that are exposed to blood or other body fluids require thorough cleaning and anti-microbial deactivation between each use. Liquid microbial deactivation systems are now widely used to clean and deactivate instruments and devices that cannot withstand the high temperatures of a steam deactivation system. Liquid microbial deactivation systems typically operate by exposing the medical devices and/or instruments to a liquid disinfectant or deactivation composition, such as peracetic acid or some other strong oxidant.
In such systems, the instruments or devices to be cleaned are typically placed within a deactivation chamber within the liquid microbial deactivation system, or in a container that is placed within the deactivation chamber. During a deactivation cycle, a liquid disinfectant is then circulated through a liquid circulation system that includes the deactivation chamber (and the container therein).
Following a deactivation cycle in a conventional reprocessor, the deactivated items are manually removed from the reprocessor, or from a tray or container that holds the items in the reprocessor during the deactivation cycle. The deactivated items are typically transferred to a storage cassette, or are sealed in a protective anti-microbial wrap to prevent deactivation of the items once they (the items) have been removed from the reprocessor. However, no matter how carefully the items are removed from the reprocessor, the items are exposed to airborne bio-contaminants once the items are exposed to the surrounding atmosphere. Thus, if the items are stored for a prolonged period of time before their next use in an operating room or the like, the bio-contaminants have time to populate within the storage cassette or anti-microbial wrap.
The present invention overcomes these and other problems and provides a method and apparatus for deactivating items, and a device for storing such deactivated items.